get a cable card, it will fit many cable boxes and some tvs directly to decode the scrambled channels....
I use a tivo, bought a existing one with lifetime service:) so monthly fees EVER, except the 4 bucks a month for the cable card that plugs in my tivo:)
The TIVO records shows by name, brings them up on a grid to watch whenever I care too:) and allows easy skipping thru commercials:)
Prime time has near 20 minutes of commercials, which I skip right thru:)

Ditto on the cable card. It's the only way I know of to get cable
without the cable company box. I have a Tivo too. I save $10 a month
on what I would be paying for a cable box with DVR and then another $3
a month because the CC is that much less than the standard cable box
without a DVR. So, I save $13 a month. It still takes several years to
break even, paying for the cost of the Tivo and the lifetime service, but
the Tivo beats the hell out of the Cablevision crap DVR.

You guys are talking AFAIK about card that works WITH a cable box. I'm asking about NOT "renting" the cable box from Verizon or... but buying a cable box that does the same job. How much would it cost +-?
TIA
HB

No, both of us specifically cited Tivo as an example. And I did the math
where I went through not having a cable box. The cable card goes in the
Tivo. I would think there are other DVRs out there or similar that work
the same way. Some TVs accept cablecard as well, which is indicated by Digital Cable Ready.

theres another detail:)
Recently TIVO released a new box called roamio. It will record either 4 or 6 channels at the same time. many lifetime tivos are being replaced by roamios, flooding the market with used regular digital lifetime tivos that take a cablecard.....
check craigslist, ebay or even goodwill. I heard of a fellow who bought a lifetime tivo at goodwill for 20 bucks:)
so such bargains do exist. I have 3 lifetime tivos here and am currently only using 2. I may connect the extra tivo to my outdoor UHF antenna.
Used digital lifetime tivos at 200 to 250 bucks appear plentiful, thanks to the roamio.
Untill you have used a TIVO you wouldnt know how convenient and wonderful it is....

What am I missing? We have cable and it is simply a coax wire that comes
into our house that I have then run into a amp/distributor that services
every room in our house (three floors)...no box or boxes anywhere. This
is the way it was done when the home was built and it is still this way.
Are the boxes just for recording (which we don't do) or what?

nearly all cable companies are encrypting all channels with a addressable box.
the company can authorize whatever specific channels they want too. your system likely uses filters to make premium channels visible.
cable companies went to digital channels so they can carry many more channels and internet too....
the last 10 years have seen major changes in cable, some make things better like more channels and better quality.
'
others require addressable converters and other hassles....

News to me. I thought most cable companies were handing out DTAs.
My company (Bright House) did last month. And Comcast (aren't they the
biggest cable company in the US now?) starting handing them out in 2010.

I guess it depends on what you mean by "getting cable without the
cable box." What you're referring to generally only allows for viewing the
free local channels that you could get with an antenna. I took HB's
question to mean that he wants cable service that the more typical
cable customer would have, ie at least some of the many channels that
require decoding. But you bring up a good point, it depends on what you
really want. If it's just the locals, then as you say, they may be able to get
that with just a DTA, that the cable company probably doesn't charge for.
If they want a typical cable package that includes things like CNN, History
Channel, FoodTV, Comedy Channel, etc, then they either need a cable
box from the cable company or a Tivo or similar DVR, etc device, TV, etc
that will accept a cable card. The cablecard has to be obtained from
the cable company too and they charge a monthly fee, but at least with
Cablevision it's $3 a month less than using their cable box. And using
the CC with Tivo instead of DVR, saves another $10/mth, which is what
Cablevision charges for their DVR.
Another thing worth pointing out in this area, that I should have
pointed out before, is that AFAIK, the cablecards are oneway devices.
You can use them to receive any of the encoded channels that you're
paying for, but you can't use them for the on-demand, pay-per-view
type services that you can order up with the cable company's own
box/remote. That doesn't matter for me, because I never used that
anyway, but if you do, it's a factor to consider.

Good question. And it hasn't been done that way, ie no cable box
required for cable, long before it went digital. At least not for the
typical cable service package that most people have, ie that includes some
of the many channels that you always had to have something more than
just the wire to access.

Our provider is Starwest which you can find at http://starwestcable.com/
. We pay $439.45 plus tax per year and you can find our channel lineup
at http://tinyurl.com/psdvml6 . Of course we could get more channels if
we wanted them but we don't. This is the only provider in our rural area
and they do not offer Internet thus we have to get DSL from the phone
company. It is my understanding that our $36.62 per month is quite
reasonable but for us it is not really a bargain because we simply don't
use it very much.

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